THE
LIBRARY OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY is the grand stay, glory and
honour of the Society. Its importance lies not in numerical strength
but in its rich and unique contents. The collection has been built
up mainly with gifts received from the members, dating back to
25 March 1784, when the Society received with thanks seven Persian
manuscripts from Henri Richardson. The next gift came from William
Marsden, F.R.S., his book, History of Island of Sumatra (1783)
on 10 November, 1784. Since the foundation of the Society, books,
manuscripts, drawings, coins, antiquarian and other objects of
historical importance were exhibited to the societys meetings,
and kept in the custody of the Secretary. As the Society had no
habitat of its own, the risk of loss was serious. After the demise
of the founder, the question of a permanent house for the Society
was strongly felt for transacting its academic activities and
for keeping and preserving for the posterity books, records, art,
antiquarian and museum objects. The Society moved into its own
building in the early part of 1808 and the Library was thrown
open to the members and the public in the same year. Thus the
Society laid the foundation of the first Academic as well as Public
Library in India. The books that had been received till then formed
the nucleus of the collection. Since then, gifts were pouring
in from heads of States (e.g. Emperor of Russia), Institutions,
Societies and individuals. Robert Home who was for some time Secretary
of the Society and the first Library-in-Charge (1804), donated
his small but very valuable collection of works on Art. The first
accession of importance was a gift from the Seringapatam Committee
(3 February 1808) being a selection from the Palace Library of
Tipoo Sultan. The Collection contains many old and rare works.
Special mention may be made of an illuminated manuscript of the
Quran and old text of Gulistan, and manuscripts of Padshanamah
bearing an autograph of Emperor Shahjahan. Similarly, Surveyor-General
Colonel Mackenzies collection of manuscripts and drawings
were received in December 1822. The collection has been grouped
into three departments; e.g.
(1) Printed Books and Periodicals
(2) Manuscripts and Archives and
(3) Museum Objects
The Printed Books Department has four sections, viz;
(1) European Languages
(2) Sanskritic & other Modern Indian Languages
(3) Perso-Arabic and Urdu and
(4) Sino-Tibetan and South-Asian Languages
Printed books are there in almost all the major languages of the
world. There are about 1,49,000 volumes, particularly rich in
works on Indology and Asiatic Lore, and in standard philological
and scientific serials. The printed books in this department range
in date from the latter half of the fifteenth century A.D. and
one of its special features consists in the many items of rare
works, otherwise unavailable, or scarcely available, including
books printed in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Total number of Manuscripts in 26 scripts and languages are 47,000
(approx). The total numbers of Journals are about 80,000.